Current and future public health is characterized by the increase of chronic and degenerative diseases, corresponding to the worldwide ageing of the population. The increasing prevalence of these conditions together with the long incubation period of the chronic diseases and the continual technological innovations, offer new opportunities to develop strategies for early diagnosis.
Public Health has an important mandate to critically assess the promises and the pitfalls of disease screening strategies. This MOOC will help you understand important concepts for screening programs that will be explored through a series of examples that are the most relevant to public health today. We will conclude with expert interviews that explore future topics that will be important for screening.
By the end of this MOOC, students should have the competency needed to be involved in the scientific field of screening, and understand the public health perspective in screening programs.
This MOOC has been designed by the University of Geneva and the University of Lausanne.
This MOOC has been prepared under the auspices of the Ecole romande de santé publique (www.ersp.ch) by Prof. Fred Paccaud, MD, MSc, Head of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Lausanne (www.iumsp.ch), in collaboration with Professor Antoine Flahault, MD, PhD, head of the Institute of Global Health, Geneva (https://www.unige.ch/medecine/isg/en/) and Prof. Gillian Bartlett-Esquilant (McGill University, Quebec/ Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Lausanne).

From the lesson

Public Mental Health and Screening in Ageing

This module explores the topics of public mental health and screening in the ageing population for neuropsychiatric conditions and physical impairments such as hearing loss. This module is given by several experts including Emiliano Albanese, assistant professor in public mental health in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Geneva and the Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in mental health at the University of Geneva; Professor Christophe Bula who is the head of the geriatric and geriatric rehabilitation service at the Vaudois University Hospital Centre; Professor Armin von Gunten who is the head of the university service for geriatric psychiatry at the Vaudois University Hospital Service. A quiz will complete this module.

Meet the Instructors

Antoine Flahault

Professor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Global Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva) and co-Director of Centre Virchow-Villermé (Université Paris Descartes)University of Geneva and Université Paris Descartes – Sorbonne Paris Cité

Fred Paccaud (In Partnership with UNIGE)

Professor of epidemiology and public health and Director of the Institute of social and preventive medicineLausanne University Hospital

Gillian Bartlett-Esquilant

Professor of Epidemiology and Research and Graduate Program Director and Associate Chair for the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University.University of Lausannne and McGill University

[MUSIC]

Welcome to Module Six in the course Disease Screening and Public Health,

where you will learn about public mental health screening in an aging population.

If you've finished Module Five,

you should know have a good understanding of what are the common cancer sites for

screening, and what are the controversies existing for the different sites.

Cancer is one of the conditions that has been growing in scope

due in part to our aging population.

Module five will help you understand the next module that explores screening of

conditions that particularly affect our ageing population,

including mental health.

In this module, we will continue to explore complex conditions, but

with a focus on public mental health, particularly as it is related to

conditions associated with an aging population.

This will be a presentation of a series of scenarios for

screening by several experts.

An introduction to public mental health as well as exploration of screening for

topics such as dementia and related disorders will be given by

Emiliano Albanize, who is an assistant professor in the Public Mental Health in

the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Geneva and

the Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Research and

Training in Mental Health at the University of Geneva.

In the next lecture, Professor Christophe Bruder, who is the head of the Geriatric

and Geriatric Rehabilitation Service at the Vaudois University Hospital Center,

will discuss screening for common issues in aging such as hearing and vision loss.

The final lecture will be given by Professor Armand von Guden

who is the head of the University Service for Psychiatry for

Advanced Aging at the Vaudois University Hospital Service, and

he will explore depression in the elderly.

Like all chronic and degenerative conditions, issues in mental health and

the prevalence of neuropsychiatric conditions

increases with the aging of the population.

Screening with an early diagnosis leading to a better prognosis is a worthwhile

objective.

However, the area of mental health is complex and

needs a careful approach before considering screening strategies.

When considering screening with an aging population,

it is important to focus on the topic of well being.

This is intrinsically linked to the public mental health

that is concerned with the promotion of mental health.

Keeping this in mind, neuropsychiatric disorders is one of the more important

conditions for the aging population along with musculoskeletal disorders,

cardiometabolic diseases and

cancer, the last two of which we have already learned about in earlier modules.

In neuropsychiatry, dementia and related disorders have created a lot of debate for

screening possibilities in an aging population.

Unlike other mental health issues, such as depression, we do not have a treatment for

dementia related disorders, such as Alzheimer's.

This module will explore whether we should consider screening to help

prepare families for the inevitable major changes that will occur with dementia, and

to be to able to make early care decisions despite the lack of effective treatment.

This module will also explore other issues that are important for

early diagnosis with primary and secondary prevention in the aging population.

These include screening for auditory and visual impairment, issues with mobility

and gait that might increase the risk of falls, and depression.

All are key topics to maintaining a healthy, mobile,

independent aging population in a state of well being.

The learning objectives for this module are to describe the main concepts for

public mental health and how this relates to physical health and disability.

To identify the main conditions that contribute to dementia and

how this differs from the normal aging process.

And to give examples of conditions that are appropriate for

screening in an aging population and the issues associated with these programs.